CALGARY 鈥� The CEO of one of sa国际传媒's largest institutional investors didn't mince words Wednesday when speaking about the recent push by some corporate leaders to order employees back to the office full-time.
"I鈥檓 amazed at, frankly, how many tone-deaf, white male CEOs are saying, 'you must come back to the office.' I think they鈥檙e asking for fights with their employees," said Evan Siddall, head of the Alberta Investment Management Corp. (AIMCo) and a former CEO of the sa国际传媒 Mortgage and Housing Corporation.
"I think there's been a relatively permanent shift."
Siddall made the comments Wednesday during an interview in Calgary, where he was attending the grand opening of AIMCo's new office in that city.聽
AIMCo 鈥� which is responsible for the investments of pension, endowment and government funds in Alberta, with $163.8 billion of assets under management as of the end of last year 鈥� has approximately 600 employees spread across offices in Edmonton, Calgary, Toronto, London, U.K., and Luxembourg.
Since the lifting of COVID-19 pandemic restrictions, those employees have been able to decide within their individual teams how often they want to come into the physical office 鈥� with the company suggesting that two days a week be the "starting place" for that conversation, but no firm rules to that effect.
鈥淥ur philosophy at AIMCo is we鈥檙e all adults," Siddall said. "Where you do this work doesn鈥檛 matter. There鈥檚 some orthodoxies around culture, where people say, 鈥榶ou can only preserve a culture if people are in the office full-time.' I just don鈥檛 agree with that.鈥�
For sa国际传媒's white-collar workers and employers, the pandemic was a years-long experiment in flexible, remote work.
This September has pitted some bosses and workers against each other with a renewed push by some companies to get employees back into office buildings.
And instead of the voluntary return-to-office guidelines that were a feature of earlier points in the pandemic, many employers are now mandating office attendance through corporate policies.
Those policies don't make sense at a time when companies are still struggling with ongoing labour shortages, high turnover rates and the much-talked-about "quiet quitting" phenomenon, Siddall said.
"Incidentally, our turnover 鈥� it鈥檚 higher than it鈥檚 been because of COVID 鈥� but we鈥檙e outperforming our peers because we鈥檝e got a different offering for employees. And so they鈥檙e staying,鈥� he said.聽
鈥淲e think it鈥檚 made us an employer of choice actually, and it鈥檚 enabled us to recruit some terrific people that we wouldn鈥檛 otherwise have been able to recruit.鈥�
Siddall said he's keenly aware that different demographics have different needs and preferences about where they do their work. Immigrant and culturally diverse populations, for example, have a greater tendency to have elderly family members aging in place within their homes, while young families face particular challenges related to child care.
"Large family units, or if you鈥檝e got aging parents, or young children ... it鈥檚 a different kind of lifestyle, and now we can welcome those people and expand our talent pool,鈥� he said.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 21, 2022.
Amanda Stephenson, The Canadian Press
Note to readers: This is a corrected story. A previous version had the incorrect day of the week.
